unwoman serenades dallas steampunks

Monday, April 18, 2011

Dallas Steampunk and music enthusiasts got a real treat last night when “Unwoman” played at a Farmers Branch private residence. You may have heard of “Unwoman” aka Erica Mulkey who has played, recorded, and toured with Abney Park, Voltaire, and The Heavy Sugar Duo as well as perfoming for 10 yars as a solo artist. The news of this private RSVP only event was spread by word of mouth and the internet. We actually heard about it on the Steampunk Illumination Society forum. There were at least 8 members of Steampunk Illumination Society there as well as 20 other guests. Everyone brought food and drink for an informal potluck before and during the event.

Erica has been a cello player for 21 years. The first songs she performed were beautiful lilting accacello numbers- meaning only her and the instrument. She then took a short break and returned for another session with minimal recorded backup music. Especially interesting was one song that the backup percussion instrumentals were composed of recordings of her own amplified heartbeat and breathing! We were quite impressed by her innovation, creativity and talent. A crowd favorite got the audience involved in singing along to a chorus with her.

The City, by Unwoman

This concert was very special because of the intimate setting- we got to sit on the floor right next to her for over an hour. She mingled with her fans and was available to answer questions about her music. Erica is an amazing artist and we especially enjoyed her touch of commenting on what the songs meant to her before she sang them. Erica also offered the community some amazing deals on her music. We purchased a red bullet USB drive that has her entire music catalog for only $40. She also had CDs for sale if you preferred that presentation of the music with cover art.

Erica also performed 2 days later at the first Oklahoma Steampunk Expo in Oklahoma City which was a full three day all Steampunk event. It was beautiful music, fun interaction, and very well received! While it could not match the intimacy and the ability to interact so personally as at the private concert in a large living room, this venue still had some of that flavor as fans stood near the stage and swayed to her haunting melodies. She was scheduled to perform on Saturday at 4pm in the Atrium, but also filled the 3 pm slot, that was supposed to be for “Psych Corporation” when the event organizers found themselves unable to cover that groups plane fare to the event. This unfortunately happened to a lot of performers for that event, but Ms. Mulkey, and the other performers helped to fill in the gaps created and make it a really fun weekend. We really enjoyed hearing her play again and that time we were able to dance more to her music! There was not enough room in the house and we did not want to block the view so we had to settle for simply swaying and dancing in place (while seated on the floor) to her beautiful voice and cello.

To learn more about Miss Unwoman, please visit her website, at: http://www.unwoman.com/ , and listen to tracks from her new album, “Casualties”.

Radha Fagan has written articles for and managed online educational sites regarding Yogic Science, Alternative Religions, and other topics fro many years. She is also one of the leaders of Kalis Hourglass, a nautical oriented Steampunk/Clockpunk performance art troupe. She is also the group’s Artistic Director, the Dance Director, and writes and manages the online blog for Kali’s Hourglass. Radha Fagan additionally is the Administrator for the North Texas Steampunks Facebook website, Co-Organizer for the DFW Clockpunks and Renpunks Group, and an Alternate Administrator for the Steampunk Illumination Society website in addition to being a guest contributing writer for various online magazines.

(My thanks to Mr. Ramon Leon del Mar for the lead on this wonderful article… you can avail yourself of his works at his website, The Art of Steampunk)